Reviews and guides to electronic gadgets, software, applications and other online services

Sunday, December 16, 2012

How to Use Dropbox for File Synchronization?

The first question is of course what is Dropbox?Dropbox is one of the most popular file synchronization applications whereby you can both synchronize your documents (virtually anything) across several platforms and hardware as well as share it with anyone you wish through the internet.How to use Dropbox?To get started simply visit the Dropbox website and sign up for a free account. Also download their software and install on any hardware you wish to use it on. It will create a Dropbox folder on a location of your choice on your computer. Dropbox also has dedicated apps for Blackberry, iPhone, iPad and android.Once, you have synced your Dropbox account with your Dropbox folder(s) you can simply put anything (text, photos, folders etc) in your Dropbox folder and it will show up on all your synced Dropbox folders and also your online Dropbox account. (But for this to work an internet connection is obviously necessary.)Further, you can share all (or some) of the files in your Dropbox folder with friends and colleagues either by e-mail or by sharing an auto-generated link. Or invite Dropbox users to a "shared folder" which will be synced the Dropbox accounts of all the concerned members and anyone can modify it and automatically share it with team mates. This is very useful for team projects that everyone encounters at school or work.Using Dropbox you can also offer downloadable documents to people with a specified link but I am not entirely convinced just how safe it is to share this link with the public.Dropbox Storage Space and PlansYou start with a free account at dropbox.com with 2GB space but can increase your space by an additional 875+MB by doing some very basic and also useful stuff such as taking a beginners' tour and syncing your dropbox account with Facebook and Twitter or by simply providing feedback.Another way to expand your free storage space (upto a maximum of 18GB total) is by referring friends to dropbox. You get 500MB for every successful referal.Dropbox also offers paid storage staring from 100GB at $9.99/month. Visit dropbox.com to find out more about this really great service.